Saturday, December 29, 2012

Lefse Making 2013

Our Holiday season was a little different than past years. With the start of "Remnants By Carrie" (update to come on that later) I didn't get any handmade gift making for my own gift list (although completed custom orders for a number of customers :)!) And with all the illness we have had in our house I didn't even make my traditional collection of Holiday cookies (sorry Uncle Paul!). We did get a real tree for the first time in 7 years, hung our stockings and set up our collection of Nativity scenes. We had fun shopping with the boys and anticipated the arrival of Santa. We watched Holiday movies in preparation of the season. Despite both boys having colds and coughs we spent Christmas Eve day with my family eating fabulous food, opening gifts and playing Scrabble. Because of said colds, though, the boys and I had to skip Daddy's family Christmas as Papa just had lung surgery and the last thing he needs is a cough. Daddy did go and brought home presents and great food!

One of the highlights of the season was the Little and I going to my mom and dad's and learning to make lefsa. What fun! We always have a Scandinavian feel to our Christmases reflecting our Norwegian, Swedish and Danish heritage. The little (being well over 1/2 Norwegian) is a lefsa lover so we decided it was time for he and I to get a lesson. The Norse in the both of us came out and we ROCKED! What fun! He can't wait to make some more at Easter time! Here are a few pictures of our morning...
 The Little learning how to roll the lefsa from Grandma.
 
The Little's favorite job: flouring the next pat of lefse dough for rolling.
 
 
  Learning to flip the lefsa from Grandpa.

 Grandpa and the Little with their flipping sticks (really need to look up the official name for them...)
 
 
 

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Advent Traditions

One of my favorite traditions as a child the daily tradition of snapping the ornament on our advent calendar. My mom and her sister have matching homemade advent calendars so we new that our cousin's were doing the same thing...a fun tie to family who lived a ways away. As we all grew and left home we decided we all needed our own calendars so the soon-to-be grandmas could keep theirs (and siblings didn't fight over the coveted tradition :)!). One fall day we all met at my aunt's in northern Wisconsin to make a calendar for each cousin to have in their homes. Such fun! Now our calendar's have a bit of each of us in them. My boys love the tradition and strategically arrange the ornaments so they get to put up their favorites as they alternate days. Each ornament has a paper description that describes how it ties into the Christian observation of Advent. This year my little made a chain Advent calendar in school to also mark the days to Christmas. Now we have two wonderful ways to honor the season and our family traditions!











First Winter Storm Of The Season

Yeah! Even more exciting since it is falling on a Sunday and my husband doesn't need to commute in it! A lovely, snowy day all cozy at home! The perfect day to mak Christmas cookies, put together puzzles and knit...all with the fire burning in the background!